(The Turkish Post) – The Turkish Football Federation dismissed national team coach Vincenzo Montella on Friday, Oct. 9, after a group-stage exit at the World Cup and four straight defeats in the Nations League, at a board meeting where five senior officials resigned.
The federation did not give a reason for Montella’s departure and did not name a successor. It said its board, led by President İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu, would stay in office until the next regular general assembly, rejecting calls for an early election.
Five board members resign
The decisions came at a meeting at the federation’s national team training center in Riva, on the outskirts of Istanbul. First Deputy President Mecnun Otyakmaz and four other board members, Mustafa Temel Bozbağ, Zafer Bahadır Saraç, Bilal Arslan and Murat Şahin, stepped down after their proposal for an extraordinary general assembly failed to win a majority. Seven members voted for the board to continue.
“We felt there was no point in continuing. When differences of opinion emerged, we decided to resign,” Otyakmaz said. He added that Montella’s future was still being discussed when the five left the meeting.
The federation also filled two earlier vacancies on the board with alternate members İbrahim Özbay and Metin Akyüz, and made changes to its general secretariat after the resignation of Secretary-General Abdullah Ayaz.
Montella’s run with the national team
Montella, a former Italy striker, took over the Turkish national team in September 2023 after two seasons in charge of Adana Demirspor in the Turkish top flight, from 2021 to 2023. He had earlier managed Fiorentina, AC Milan and Sevilla.
His first major tournament brought one of the best results in the team’s recent history. At Euro 2024 in Germany, Türkiye won two of its three group matches, against Georgia and the Czech Republic, and then reached the quarterfinals by beating Austria 2-1 in the round of 16, before losing 2-1 to the Netherlands in Berlin.
The team then qualified for the 2026 World Cup in North America, its first appearance at the tournament since 2002, when it finished third. In Group D, Türkiye lost 2-0 to Australia and 1-0 to Paraguay, which ended its hopes of reaching the knockout stage, before beating the United States 3-2 in its final match. Kaan Ayhan scored the winner in stoppage time against a U.S. side that had already secured its place in the next round.
Pressure grows on the national team
After the World Cup exit, Hacıosmanoğlu publicly backed the coach. “We will stand by our coach,” he said, and Montella rejected calls to resign.
The new Nations League campaign deepened the crisis. The national team lost its opening matches to France and Italy in late September and kept losing in early October, bringing the run to four defeats in a row.
Türkiye had earned its place in the top tier of the competition in March 2025, beating Hungary in a two-legged promotion playoff to move up to League A, where it was drawn with France and Italy.
After the defeat to Italy in September, Montella again ruled out stepping down, saying he believed in the work he was doing. Reports that the federation had decided to replace him began to circulate in Turkish media earlier this week.
What the Turkish Football Federation faces next
The Turkish Football Federation must now appoint a new coach for the remaining Nations League matches. Its board will do so with five fewer members, two years after Hacıosmanoğlu was elected president in July 2024.
The next regular general assembly, at which members could vote on the federation’s leadership, has not yet been scheduled.
